Tell Congress to fund and expand critical programs for families and children!
There are only a few weeks left for Congress to pass a major end-of-year spending bill and we’re doing everything in our power to ensure that it includes protections and investments for critical needs programming.
Some in Congress want to freeze all funding instead of responding to today’s needs. In a time of rising costs, that means cutting services.
People deserve access to safe, stable, affordable housing. It’s a human right. As inflation continues to cause pain at the gas pump and grocery stores, wages aren’t keeping up. In fact, 66% of workers say that inflation has outpaced the wage gains they’ve made in the past year.1
Right now, a full-time worker needs to earn $25.82 per hour to afford a modest, two-bedroom rental home and $21.25 per hour to afford a modest, one-bedroom rental home.2
At the same time, too many families struggle to find and afford high-quality child care that meets their needs, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these challenges. President Biden has proposed an historic investment in funding for child care and early education to help kids grow in these critical learning years and help support working families remain in the workforce.
Increased annual appropriations will be critical to ensure we build on recent relief investments and continue on the road to economic recovery. Higher food, rent, and heat, and raising pay for low-paid service workers — if these higher costs are not addressed, we’ll be helping fewer people. The dire effects of the pandemic will be felt for years to come and without investments in our future, we risk backsliding, further exacerbating racial wealth and income gaps.
The no relief for corporations unless we help families edition. Congress has returned for its lame-duck session, and corporate lobbyists are frantically pressuring members to approve business tax breaks before they leave later this month. But families and human needs advocates are telling their Senators that expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) must be a priority in any year-end tax package. In particular, advocates are insisting on full refundability for the CTC so that 19 million children in low-income families across the U.S. are not excluded from receiving all or any of the current $2,000 per-child CTC.
April 18, 2020, is a day that Heather Elizabeth Brown will never forget. It was the day that after receiving countless negative COVID-19 tests throughout the month and being sent home from the hospital twice, Brown was finally admitted as a COVID-19 patient. Her journey would then include a 31-day medically induced coma, a stroke, blood clots, and two blood transfusions. Now, more than two years later, Brown is still feeling the effects of her COVID-19 diagnosis.
Speaker Pelosi’s oft-repeated “For the children” exhortation was not just a catch-phrase, but a commitment to improve the lives of children and their families. In a time when far too many elected officials substitute aggrandizement for leadership, a look at the career of Nancy Pelosi is a good reminder of what real leadership can do.
Antisemitism is a chronic disease and we’re currently living through an outbreak. But we have the power to prevent antisemitic acts from continuing to spread.
The Medicaid and health edition. Health care was on the ballot in several states this past Tuesday. In South Dakota, 42,500 additional people will eventually be eligible for Medicaid benefits after voters approved Medicaid expansion. In Oregon, voters approved an historic measure that amends the state’s constitution to mandate that all residents have access to “cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care.” And in Arizona, voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 209, which reduces the amount of interest creditors can charge for health debt from 10 percent to 3 percent. Meanwhile, on the federal level, there are urgent health care issues that Congress must address when members return later this month.
Last week, Voices for Human Needs reported on renewed efforts throughout the U.S. to urge Congress to once again expand the Child Tax Credit. As families struggle with rising prices — everything from the food they buy to rising rents to increased energy costs — action is needed more than ever. This week, the calls for CTC expansion continued, with new stories in six states.
As the child of immigrant parents, there are certain unspoken promises you make to them. You promise to do well in school, stay out of trouble, go to college, and get a good job. You promise to fight through the systemic barriers and racism to achieve the American Dream they so longed for. You promise to make their sacrifices worth it.
More than 411 local, state, and national groups signed a letter delivered today to every House and Senate office calling on Congress to agree to House-proposed spending levels for domestic and international (non-defense) discretionary programs in an omnibus funding bill needed by December 16. A copy of the letter, along with the 411 signers, is available here.
The news of the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fills us with dismay. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery, and want Speaker Pelosi to know we are holding her and her family in our thoughts and prayers.
The invest in education edition. This week, the largest standardized test results in years came out, and we received another snapshot of just how far behind the pandemic has left many students. The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) – the “nation’s report card” — tested hundreds of thousands of fourth and eighth graders across the country. Reading scores are down and math scores plummeted by the largest margin in the history of the NAEP program, which began in 1969.
